My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam.
I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

UAE ejects Lebanese.....

When Hussein Massoud returned to the United Arab Emirates from his summer vacation in Lebanon on July 17, he entered the immigration line at Sharja airport like he has hundreds of times before over the past 34 years.

But on his most recent trip, the Emirati immigration officers told Massoud that his work permit and residency card had been canceled, and that he had to take the next flight back to Lebanon. Further, neither he nor his family could return.

The sense of shock that his life could change so quickly remains weeks later.

“After 34 years they cancelled it very easily, more easily than drinking a cup of water,” he said.

Massoud had made the U.A.E. his home. He is one of thousands of Lebanese who grew up in the U.A.E., where a majority of the workforce is foreign. He owns a house, land, several cars and an aluminum fabrication business that does millions of dollars of business every year. His kids were raised there.

So upon returning to Lebanon he naturally sought help at the ministry of foreign affairs, thinking all the while that his situation was unique.I n fact, he was told he was the 13th person to call with the same complaint.

Now, he among of a group of more than 200 Lebanese claiming they have been unfairly expelled from their homes, jobs and lives in the U.A.E. They include businessmen, lawyers and doctors. None was given an explanation, and they all have one thing in common: they are Lebanese Shiites.

Wahab Hajj Hassan, another Lebanese who was deported in July, was working as a legal advisor to the U.A.E. Ministry of Education for two years. He says the deportation was meant to send a signal — perhaps at the behest of the U.S. or Israel, that Lebanese Shiites shouldn’t support the Iranian backed Lebanese militia and political party Hezbollah. But he says he’s baffled, because he’s not a Hezbollah member or supporter. He didn’t even vote for them in the last election.

0 Comments:

Links to this post:

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam.
I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)